My sister lives across the country and it is tough. Not only does my sister live there, but she took with her the best brother in law around and three of the greatest nieces and nephews a girl could have. Sigh. Not a fan of this cross-country thing.
Anyway, I've been dying to get out there for a visit. Dying to escape work for a few days. And I found a cheap (ish) flight. So I emailed my brother in law letting him know my plan and suggesting we keep it a secret since my tickets were conveniently over my sisters birthday. Hurray. Not sure if my brother in law could pull off this secret, we brainstormed back and forth. When I talked to Kate on Easter, she mentioned they had bought tickets to come visit this summer out of Spokane (about 2 hours from their house). She mentioned a couple times that they'd need to figure out long term parking for their van and figure out the airport logistics. Hmmm. I emailed Mark. Long term parking at airport- perfect cover for coming to find me. He pulled it off wonderfully!!
He had to work Saturday (the actual birthday) so he told her that he was taking Thursday off for a day with the family and had a day planned. Bring jackets for the kids and snacks for the car. They had talked about doing a day trip to Spokane before, so she wasn't shocked when it became clear that's where they were headed. He mentioned scoping out the long term parking and finding the terminal, since they were driving right by. I even had to call and use our prearranged work story: Hi it's Janice. "Sorry I'm not at work today." I told him where I was. "Okay, well I'll see you soon." Look for the red jacket Mark.
The long term parking had been scoped. They drove by the Delta terminal and Kathleen said she thought he was still going pretty slow and looking around. Still not enough to arouse suspicion though. Then she saw someone and thought they looked kind of like Reenie. Next thing she knew, there I was!! Eeeek. Tears. Laughing. I opened the door to see the kids. All three stared at me blankly until Andrew raised his hand for a wave!! Ellie said later that she thought I was just going to say Hi there and she didn't know I was coming home with them!! So great!! A few minutes after leaving the airport Mark mentioned that wasn't really Janice from work calling earlier. "What???" Awesome. Nicely done Mark, nicely done.
Anyway, the birthday surprise and weekend visit was a smashing success. Not just the surprise, but a chance to spend some good quality time with my people. Can't put into words how great it was to be there with all of them. Sooooo hard coming home. Washington is a long ways away.
I'll share some pics when I get a chance to download. In the meantime, it was fabulous. Food for the soul. And Andrew insisted on Aunt Reenie reading all the bedtime stories and doing the bedtime routine- do you know how great it is to have a two year old pick you? And Ellie (almost 5) suggested repeatedly that maybe I could surprise her for her birthday (at the end of this month-- which I discouraged, knowing I can't pull it off and wanting to keep it from being a birthday expectation ;) Yeah, like I said, food for the soul to be with my babes-- big and small. I am blessed. Happy birthday sis.
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